Australian Flying - July 2018

subject to intense development,
which is keeping manufacturers on
their toes.
“We are now in the age of
revolution that we call Uber
Air Mobility,” says Tomasz
Krysinksi, Airbus Helicopters
Senior Vice President – Research
and Innovation. “Every 50 years,
aviation goes through some kind
of revolution. One hundred years
ago, the first people bought tickets
to f ly in fixed-wing aircraft, and
50 years ago, people started to buy

tickets for f lying on helicopters.

And now we are in the age of Uber

Air Mobility, and with electric

drive we can produce a f lying taxi.

We have several concepts. One of

them is CityAirbus, which is due

to the evolution of electric motors

and the batteries.

“For us, Uber Air Mobility is

not only something that takes

people from the suburbs to the

centre of the city, but also from

city to city. We also have the

RACER, our hybrid concept

that allows high-speed transport

between cities.”

Airbus is a bit ahead of the pack

with their air taxi machine, having

f lown an odd-looking, eight-

rotored drone in 2017. It looks

nothing like the artists’ renditions

of the sleek, four-rotored product

that is on target to f ly some time

in 2018, but it did prove that the

concept works. It gives them an

advantage over Bell, which is also

on the air-taxi crusade.

“We’re pursuing what we call

on-demand mobility vehicles;

vehicles that can move people

or things very quickly and

on-demand from one place

to another,” Bell Director of

Innovation Scott Drennan told

Australian Flying. “Helicopters

have done this mission in the

past up until today, but this new

breed of vehicle uses electrified

propulsion and in many cases

distributed propulsion.

“We are collaborating with

Uber in their Elevate network as

one of their five OEMs, and we’re

working towards a demonstration

of that vehicle as a certifiable

aircraft that can enter the market

and service our customers.

“We believe a vibrant market

when people are using these

vehicles will happen in the mid-

2020s. Our demonstration

should be available in the first half

of that period.”

Meet George Jetson

VTOL aircraft are shaping as

the perfect tool for the air taxi

market; in fact they might be the

only tool that will do the job. Air

taxi is as it sounds: on-demand,

largely inter-urban, point-to-

point journeys that carry no

more people than the ground-

bound yellow cab of today. It’s

very easy to be reminded of the

f lying-saucer style machines in

the 1960s cartoon The Jetsons.

The difference is that the

technology to make it happen is

still emerging.

However, the largest

technological change is on the

cusp of reality: electric propulsion.

It is almost a given that to be

successful in the brave new air-

taxi world you have to master

efficient, light, electrical power.

The current thinking surrounds

batteries distributing power out

to several small rotors, which will

make the aircraft much quieter

and less reliant on conventional

australianflying.com.au 25

July – August 2018 AUSTRALIAN FLYING

MAIN: Airbus Helicopter’s

RACER is aimed at fast

travel between urban

and regional centres.

LEFT: Airbus’ X-3

demonstrator laid the

foundation for the

RACER concept.

BELOW LEFT: Robinson

is pursuing new systems for

aircraft such as the

R66 turbine newscopter.

AIRBUS HELICOPTERS

ROBINSON HELICOPTERS